A new phase of concrete activities for ITU’s Child
Online Protection (COP) initiative will encourage the
development of national COP centres, awareness
campaigns and community forums to create a safe
environment for young users of the Internet.

The COP Global Initiative was announced on
17 November 2010 by the Patron of COP, Costa
Rica’s President Laura Chinchilla and ITU Secretary-General, Hamadoun I. Touré at a ceremony in San
Jose, Costa Rica.

COP was launched in November 2008 with support
from the United Nations Secretary-General who
urged all States to support it. COP brings together
partners from all sectors of the international community
with the aim of creating a safe and secure
online experience for children everywhere. In 2009, a
multi-stakeholder group of COP members developed
global guidelines for children, parents, governments
and industry.

The November 2010 announcement will see COP
move forward from these guidelines towards the development
of industry codes of conduct; the establishment
of national hotlines; the development of national
road maps and legislative toolkits; training for
parents, guardians and educators and harnessing the
power of multi-stakeholder collaboration through resources
such as an online platform for sharing advice
and information.

The COP Global Initiative will give regulators the
tools to build on the experience of others in the development
of national plans for protecting children
online. For industry, it will promote self-regulation
for full and positive participation in online communities.
A key aim will be to equip parents with an
understanding of the risks involved. For children the
Global Initiative will aim to generate a safe environment
while not diminishing the benefits offered by
the online world.

Launching the initiative, Dr Touré said “The support
for COP has been overwhelming and today
we announce an exciting new phase moving from
strategy to action. Guidelines for regulators, industry,
parents and children themselves have been very
well received but we have been asked for more.”
Dr Touré added that with the patronage of President
Chinchilla, he was proud to make this call to action
to the global community. “The Internet reflects the
diversity of global peoples and its many benefits
include the potential to offer real development opportunities.
However, in the march towards creating
knowledge economies we must not lose sight of the
most vulnerable users of the Internet,” he stressed.

President Chinchilla added “I am honoured to be
the Patron of Child Online Protection and this new
initiative. We live in a world of marvellous opportunity,
much of it created digitally. The new initiative
will foster a culture of prudence and a sensible and
practical attitude to the further development of the
digital world. Children have a remarkable ability to
master computers from an early age, which is, at
the same time, both astounding and frightening for
parents. We have the global will to provide a safe
environment and I am determined that with today’s
announcement we will attract increased support and
achieve our aim.”

Also speaking at the event, Costa Rica’s Minister
of Science and Technology, Clotilde Fonseca, drew
attention to the launch of a National Plan for
Online Security and the establishment of a National
Commission on Online Safety. “Thanks to this effort,
the initiatives that were already in place in our
country will be coordinated and enhanced and new
lines of coordination, resource management and
joint work will be launched to allow us to fill gaps
and promote new initiatives,” she said. Ms Fonseca
also highlighted the significance that the visit of ITU’s
Secretary-General has for Costa Rica: “This is a clear
sign of the importance of President Chinchilla’s participation
as global sponsor of this important initiative,”
she said.

The COP Global Initiative will build on the success
of ITU’s Global Cybersecurity Agenda (GCA) being implemented
through multi-stakeholder partnerships.